This invention relates to wind turbines and more especially to wind turbines having rotors mounted for rotation about vertical axes and capable of being mounted on or to an existing industrial chimney, concrete tower or similar structure.
Vertical axis wind turbines have fixed geometry blades and enjoy several advantages over more conventional wind turbines having variable geometry blades, these including eliminating the need for a yaw control system and lower design and manufacturing costs.
Several designs of vertical axis wind turbines are known and have been employed to generate electricity. These known machines have been mounted on specially designed and built towers and include either a gear box and power generator mounted within the structure of the respective tower or in a plant room located at the tower base with a connecting drive shaft to the rotor arm of the turbine. Existing wind turbines are relatively expensive to construct largely due to the high civil engineering cost of the tower. As larger and more powerful wind turbines are developed, so more expensive towers will need to be built to support them. Furthermore the power output of such known wind turbines is limited.